Chapter One: Star Wars: An Alien Discovery
by MBosco
Summary: After running into trouble with the Republic military and fleeing to the Unknown Regions, a pirate ship discovers an abandoned Republic war ship.  Thinking that they had a lucky break, the crew strips it of everything, including a cardo of strange eggs.g
1. Chapter 1

20 BBY

Mandalorian warrior and bounty hunter Darrious Ordo's stood on the bridge of the "privately owned" _Lucrehulk_-class cruiser called the _Pillager_ next to Tarson Gale, a human pirate who was very, very down on his luck. There last attempt to take a ship ended in being routed by a reinforced Republic fleet and being sent fleeing to the unknown regions. Ordo hated working with scum like Gale but since he had freed Ordo from a Confederate Banking Clan frigate, Gale would not let Ordo leave, saying "Having a Mandolorian of your reputation and skill around may be useful."

After awhile, Ordo had come to respect the man. He was an intelligent man who was not only a pirate but also a big time black market dealer, selling anything he didn't keep for himself. Now, with his cargo holds filled with nothing but necessary supplies and the war droids that he had acquired with the cruiser, Gale was in a foul mood. Turning to Darrious he asked quite calmly, "Do you know where we are, Darrious? Neither I nor my men seem to have the slightest idea."

Darrious crossed his muscular arms and replied, "Maurlo should know. We aren't far from the borders of Chiss Space. If we drop out of hyperspace in five minutes we will be in the Dromund system of ancient Sith Space."

Gale cocked an eyebrow and said, "Any chance of a catch there?" Ordo chuckled and mentioned several popular hyperspace lanes used by smugglers and Hutt cargo haulers. Gale paced to the viewport and gave the order to Maurlo, his Chiss helmsman, "Have the ship stopped in that area. I think we will stay around and see if there is anything to have there."

As soon as the ship dropped out of hyperspace, the _Pillager_ nearly ran into a _Venator_-Class Star Destroyer. At first, Gale began giving orders to turn the ship about and flee, thinking that they had ran from one Republic entanglement to another. But, even as the crew sprang into desperate action, Ordo said, "Tars, the ship isn't responding to our arrival. Look closely, its just floating in the gravity well of that planet, Dromund Tyne I think that one is."

Gale called to belay all previous orders and observed. Turning to the big Mandalorian he smiled and said, "Very observant, Darrious. I'm glad I invited you to come along with me." Turning to Maurlo, he said, "Tell Dregs to activate two platoons of B1 battle droids and a couple squads of B2 super battle droids and send them over in a drop ship. I want to know of anything valuable in that ship. Have them transmit the ships logs over too."

Darrious said, "I'm gonna go with them." Gale was beside him in a second. "Splendid idea Darrious, I'll go too. Maurlo, have Desst and a few dozen of the boys meat us at the _Plunder_."

The _Plunder_ was a purloined _Consular-_class cruiser that had been fitted with quad laser cannons and proton torpedo tubes as well as a rack of twelve illegally bought Nubean N1 star fighters hooked to the bottom. Hatches had been equipped so that pilots could get to them without danger. _Plunder _streaked through space, docking at one of the star destroyers bottomhatches. New was already coming back from the droid squads. The ship was fuel of fuel, the armories had both armor and weapons inside. The hangers even had several squadrons of ARC-170s Fighters, V19 Torrent Fighters, V-wing fighters and apparently a trio of JedI Interceptors and an older JedI 'Dartship'. Gale was elated, telling the droids to fill repulser carts with the weapons and armor and had a large number of droid pilots fly over to have the ships taken back to the _Pillager. _Darrious was looking around one of the cargo holds when Gale's comlink chimed and the droid commander reported his findings in the logs, "Sir, it would seem that the ship was set to jump here at random and that the crew abandoned the ship mere moments before the jump took place. But this happened near the beginning of the war nearly a year and a half ago."

Gale frowned and asked, "What else do the logs say?" The reply came momentarily, "That another derelict vessel was found near Chiss Space while this vessel was on patrol. Apparently its cargo hold was filled with large eggs, all of which were taken aboard here. In fact, it looks like you are in the hold that they are stored in."

Darrious called from a few meters away, saying, "Tars, take a look at this."

There were hundreds of them. They were the size of footlockers and seemed to have strange creases at the top. Gale commed his droid commander, "Any clue as to why the crew evacuate?" The droid replied, "It would seem that they picked up a stowaway creature on when they got the eggs, sir."

Gale rubbed his mustache for a few moments before saying, "Well, if the Reps thought that these were of value, then they must be. Commander, send some labor droids to pick these up and bring them back."

Nearly twelve hours later, the Republic ship was stripped of all extra weapons, droids, ships and supplies of every kind as well as its strange cargo. Darrious looked through the weapons, claiming several for himself. He also took a _Nu-class combat shuttle as his own. Gale had a biological specialist and several armed guards go down to examine the eggs while he sat down with Darrious, Maurlo and Dregs to some of the newer foods they had found. They are their meal and Maurlo and Dregs got back to there posts. For awhile, Darrious and Gale made small talk about the find. Finally, after a brief pause, Darrious said, "Tars, I want to leave as soon as we get back to the outer rim. You have been a good…" he searched for the word and Gale supplied it with a smile, "Partner?" Darrious hesitated and then nodded, "Yes partner. But I need to be free to continue bounty hunting." _

_Gale poured himself some more wine that they had found on board and was about to reply when his comlink chimed, "What is it?" he asked. A gasping sound came from the other end, saying, "Eggs hatching… Creatures inside are parasites… Did something to us… Send help."_

_The line went dead. Quickly, Gale keyed to the medical area. "Yes?" asked a wet, gravely voice of a selkath. Gale said, "I want a medical and security team sent to cargo hold eight. Something has happened to the men there. Move now!_

_Inside the hold, Desst, who was in charge of the team that was examining the eggs. Sat with his back against a crate. The strange parasite lay dead next to him but he felt a sickening wait in his chest, right behind his guts. Breathing was hard and so was thinking through waves of pain. He had just the clarity of mind to pull out his blaster incase more of the things popped up. Next to him, a woman lay on her side, trying to get a good breath. Suddenly she screamed and her chest began to bulge. The sound of cracking bones and tearing tissue was audible. Suddenly, out of her chest popped a strange serpentine head. Desst stared dumbly at it before raising his blaster. Suddenly, a rending and tearing pain and noise came from his own body. I groaned and screamed himself. Just before his eyes shut for the last time, he saw another little serpent burst out of his own body. _


	2. Chapter 2: An Alien Infestation

22 BBY

Darrious Ordo, a Mandalorian warrior and very well known bounty hunter walked into the personal quarters of his friend and partner Tarson Gale. In truth, the man had kept Darrious against his will after saving him from and Confederacy Banking Clan frigate brig. After a few weeks of being on Gale's personal Lucrehulk-class cruiser, the _Pillager, Darrious had come to respect and even like the pirate captain. Now Darrious watched as Gale poured himself a glass of Telos Brandy with rather shaky hands. Darrious cleared his throat and said, "Tars, we need to do something about these creatures aboard your ship and about the other eggs. Did you have them sealed up tight? Are you going to keep them?"_

_Gale took a couple drinks before wiping his mouth on a handkerchief and speaking. "I have every one of my crew and every combat droid on board looking for those monsters. The eggs are sealed up tight in durasteel containers and I am gonna space them as soon as possible." and after several moments of Darrious' piercing gray eyes staring at him, he blurted out, "Kark it, Darrious! What else can I do? I'm about to loose my ship to a bunch of mindless…mindless…" he searched for the write word for the strange serpents that had burst out of nearly twenty of his crewmen's chests. Darrious walked over to him saying, "Xenomorphs. That's what they are. I have never seen the like of them before. But one thing is for sure - as long as I am here, you may lose your ship, but you will survive."_

_Gale sighed and said, "You should leave while you can, Darrious. I won't leave my ship but I will not hold you here either. Take the fancy new shuttle of yours and those weapons and take your leave." Darrious shook his head, saying "A Mandoa never leaves his friends in danger like that. I'm staying until every last one of them is dead or we are." _

_Gale finished his brandy and sighed. He gripped Darrious by the shoulders and said from the depths of his soul, "Thank you Darrious." _

_Darrious smiled and said, "First, we need to space those eggs. Let me grab my armor and weapons. You should arm up too, Tars. Meet me in the cargo hold in ten minutes." Tars grinned and saluted saying, "Yes sir. I'll jump right to it." _

_For the first time since running into Gale, Darrious donned his gold and red armor. With it went a jetpack, a custom blaster rifle made for him by his father before he died and a blaster pistol to match. With these, he also took the other weapons he had looted from the Venator-Class star destroyer that had brought the strange alien serpent creatures onto the ship. He had taken three weapons systems and a melee weapons that was very unique. The first blaster was a DC-17m weapon that could be fitted with a blaster rifle attachment, a sniper rifle attachment and a grenade launcher attachment. The second was a WESTER-M5 assault blaster rifle used mostly by Republic Advanced Recon Commandos. The third and final one was new blaster rifle on the market, a BlasTech A295, capable or one hundred rounds per energy sell and very accurate and powerful. The melee weapon was one he had not seen since leaving the True Mandalorians to hunt bounties. It was a blade made out of Mandalorian Iron, or Beskar. It's very unique feature a power vain inside the blade that emitted and energy field which allowed it to cut through almost anything. It was made to combat lightsabers. He slung his personal rifle and holstered his blaster pistol. He also sheathed the beskar sword at his hip. The rest he took to his new shuttle, leaving his jetpack there as well. That done, he ran to the cargo hold._

_Gale met up with him in the turbo lift that led to the hold. When they arrived, they ran quickly in the direction of the containers holding the rest of the eggs. Upon arrival, both men stopped dead in their tracks. Perched on top of one of the durasteel containers was a large, beetle black xenomorph. Its head was long and curving and round. No eyes were visible but it had a row of ugly sharp teeth which it bared with an angry hiss. It's body was covered in a sharp exoskeleton and it had four strange spines on its back and a long tale with a sharp barb at the end of it. Behind it, almost a dozen more popped up, hissing. The first one jumped down and approached Darrious and Gale while the others hoisted the containers into massive rents in the ventilation shafts. The xenomorph opened its mouth and revealed a secondary one that snapped out aggressively. Within the blink of an eye and without any sort of warning, it sprung at the men. Darrious shoved Gale out of the way and rolled in the opposite direction in one fluid movement, yanking out his blaster pistol at the same time. He came up and fired three fast shots. Two missed the creature but one caught it in its back leg, blowing it clean off at the knobby knee joint. With a swift move, Darrious pinned it to the ground by stomping down on its neck and was about to put two fast shots into its head when he was knocked off of his feet by a sharp blow from the creatures tale. It continued to hiss and crawled toward him. Suddenly, a snap-hiss was heard and a blade of pure energy speared through the creatures long head. Gale stood over the now dead creature holding a lightfoil. The smaller cousin to the JedI weapon was white in color and had a long purple tassel on its pommel. Darrious leapt to his feet as Gale deactivated his weapon. "Where did you get that, Tars?" he asked. Gale smiled and patted it fondly. "I learned to fight with Ichani foils a long time ago. This was a gift from my teacher. He said that a JedI had made it for an Ichani general during the Mandalorian wars." _

_Darrious was about to reply but instead unslung his blaster rifle and began to fire rapidly towards the egg canisters. Gale turned, pulling out his own blaster pistol and firing. He noted with dismay that many of the egg canisters were gone already. The xenomorphs retreated into the vent, hissing angrily as they went. Running to the vent, Darrious sent a gout of blue flame into the shaft from one of his gauntlets. Gale looked at him and asked, "What now? Most of the eggs are done." Darrious answered quickly, "Get some of those loading droids and have them put the rest of these in the airlock and space them. I'm gonna study these things." _

_As Gale remotely summoned and gave commands to the labor droids, Darrious knelt down and took his helmet off. The xenomorph he studied was from snout to tale almost four meters long. Taking a small knife from his belt, he attempted to cut into the creatures head to take a look at the brain. Almost yelping in surprise, he dropped the blade. A stream of green blood spewed from the head and began to melt through both the floor and his knife. Quickly, he looked down at his armor to make sure it was free of the green acid blood. A tiny drop had landed on his bronze colored Beskar breastplate. Taking a metal probe from his medkit, he prodded at the little drop of blood. Immediately, the probe began to sizzle and melt. With a smile, Darrious pulled out a ten inch combat knife made out of beskar and finished his cut, using the flat of the blade to peel aside the hard exoskeleton . Using a scanner on his helmet, Darrious learned a great deal about the neurological structure of the creatures long brain. It was covered in strange sensory nodes that allowed it to 'see' in a matter of speaking. After a few minutes, Gale come up to him and said, "That takes care of the last eggs. So, how does this thing work?"_

_Marlo, Gale's blue skinned Chiss first mate and helmsman lead his team of four down one of the lesser used hallways of the ship. They had not come across any of the strange serpentine creatures as of yet but Marlo was way to smart to even hope that they had lucked out. Each one of them carried a blaster rifle and a blaster pistol - two humans, a zabrak and Marlo. As he rounded yet another bend, the sounds of a ventilation grate clanging out of place and the scream of one of his men caused him to turn. One of the humans was looking down at his chest, which had a long, black, spike-tipped tale speared through it. Thinking fast, Marlo aimed and fired at the tale once, twice, three times. The last bolt struck it, causing the creature in the vent to scream and jerk its tale, sending the man flying into the wall with a sickening crunch. The sound of skittering came from behind Marlo. He whipped around, ready to blast another of the strange creatures, only to have a spider like face hugger wrap around his head and neck, knocking him to the ground. The last thing he heard before he blacked out was blaster fire and the screeching of the large, black serpents._

_Darrious and Gale started at the bridge, checking every vent and exhaust port. Every closet and side storage room. Each time they finished, they would seal it up - doors, vents and hatches. In this way, they cleared much of the administration and control level of the ship with no sites of the large xenomorphs, though they found and blasted nearly two dozen of the little spidery face huggers. After nearly an hour and multiple com checks, which proved to be less than encouraging seeing as a quarter of the crew squads and less than half of the droids responded, the two found themselves in one of the ships turbolaser batteries. It was dark and empty of droids and crew members. The silence was horrible as the two men checked with each weapon, each tiny crease or vent, each and every energy shell ejection port. In one of them, a face hugger leapt out, fastening to Darrious's helmet but neither its little appendage nor the acid it secreted to get through could penetrate his armor. With a swift move, he stabbed the little creature in the spine with his knife, causing its limbs to go lax before throwing it on the grown and stomping on it with a metal boot. Gale was wide eyed and looking behind and slightly above Darrious. Darrious cocked an eyebrow inside his helmet and asked, "What?"_

_Without a word, Gale pointed. A dark greenish brown mass of ooze was covering the wall behind Darrious. It dripped and oozed down onto the floor and even over several of the large gun turrets. The worst part was seeing more than thirty forms stuck into the ooze, either with face huggers on them or gaping holes in their abdomens. Among them, Darrious noticed the blue skin of Marlo. He removed his helmet and sighed. He had liked the Chiss. A loud chorus of hissing came from behind them. Putting on his helmet, whipping around and unslinging his blaster rifle in one motion, Darrious knelt and opened fire on the horde that approached them. Gale stepped back until they were side by side, firing bolt after bolt into the teaming masses. As he fired, Gale yelled into his com for any of his loyal crew to answer. No response was forthcoming. Switching frequency, he called for any remaining combat droids. Again, the line was dead. Fear gripped Gale as he realized. He and Darrious were alone aboard a ship filled with these creatures, these xenomorphs, whose only purpose seemed to be to kill and reproduce using the host of their pray. Something inside him seemed to relax as he realized this. With his crew gone and his last friend beside him, he realized he had nothing left to loose. Switching his blaster pistol over to his left hand, he pulled out the light foil with his right. With a snap his it ignited and he stood, a look of pure determination on his handsome features. Beside him, Darrious re-slung his rifle and pulled out his blade and pistol. As the increasing horde approached them, they stood side by side, firing round after round, waiting for the swarming hosts to fall upon them._


	3. Chapter 3: Escaping the Swarm

22 BBY

Darrious Ordo fired off three more swift blasts and then swung his beskar energy sword, cutting one of the great serpents' head from its shoulder. Another one leapt over the carcass and attempted to grab Darrious but wound up with the energy sword cutting it from shoulder to hip. Thinking fast, Darrious holstered his blaster and used the flame thrower on his wrist gauntlet. A stream of blue flame sprayed out, consuming the creatures. As he locked the trigger into place, he grabbed Tarson Gale and pushed him towards the door, shouting, "Run, Tars! Go before we are totally surrounded. I'll cover us."

The pirate captain obeyed running as fast as his legs would carry him. Darrious back pedaled as fast as he could until the fuel in his flamethrower ran out, then he turned an ran himself, know that the xenomorphs behind him would catch up to him and Tarson quickly if he did not think fast. They made it to the door of the battery and Tarson slammed his hand on the control panel. The blast door behind them slammed shut. Darrious nodded and they started running. As they went, Darrious said, "That should hold against their acid for at least a couple minutes. We need to get off this ship." Tarson shook his head. "No Darrious." he said resolutely. "I can't leave her in the clutches of these things. I can't leave my crew." Darrious, stopped, took off his helmet and grabbed Tarson by the shoulders, looking him dead in the eye. "Tars, your crew is dead and your ship is already lost. We have no choice but to leave it behind. Or better yet, destroy it so no one else will find these creatures."

Tarson shook his head again, almost angrily. "NO! I can't. I won't." Darrious put his helmet back on and said in a flat voice, "Tarson Gale, you will either walk out of here or I will carry your senseless body out, but either way you are leaving with me. I will not leave a friend behind like that."

Tarson was about to protest but instead just sighed and said, "You would do it too. Alright. To your ship, Darrious. But first, we need to find a way to destroy the ship. Any ideas?"

They took off again and Darrious was silent for a few moments, trying to find a solution. Lucrehulks did not have self destruct sequences on them so they would either have to blow the main reactor or send it into something. Considering that there were no suns nearby, the reactor seemed like the best plan. "Alright, here is what we will do…" and he was about to explain when they heard screeching and hissing behind them. They knew the xenomorphs were through and chasing them again. A lowed clang from above warned them that the creatures were also in the vents above them. Darrious un-slung his blaster rifle and prepped it to fire. Suddenly, two of the creature dropped down in from of them. With two quick bursts, Darrious brought them down when suddenly, one landed on top of him from above. A hiss told him that he was in trouble. Suddenly, a snap-hiss followed by a humming swoosh and a screech were heard. The creature fell dead on top of him. Moving fast he rolled the corpse to the side and saw Tarson with his Echani light foil drawn. Darrious leapt up and they took off again. They heard a chorus of screeching down the corridor behind them, they saw a swarm of the beetle black monsters. Darrious pulled a cartridge from his belt and loaded it onto his left gauntlet, taking aim, he fired the weapon, sending a cryogenic grenade into the midst of the creatures. With a flash and bang, almost thirty of the creatures were totally or partially frozen. Turning, they began to run again, just as more began to drop out of the vent shaft. Carson blasted and slashed any that landed in front of them while Darrious attempted to stem the tied behind them. Once again, leapt through a blast door and shut it, slamming one of the xenomorphs into it. This time, they heard the vents begin to creak in protest of the weight as more and more began to leap into it. Thinking fast, Darrious fired another cryogenic grenade, this time, just as the vent opened to reveal an ugly head above them. The blast froze more of the creatures and effectively blocked the vent - for the moment at least. Turning another corner, they climbed into a turbo lift and shut the door. When they reached the bridge level, Darrious made a split second decision and stopped the lift. He turned to Tarson and said, "Look, this may be the only chance we get to destroy the ship. I am going to set it on a collision course with the Venator-Class Destroyer out there. Hopefully, that will destroy it."

Tarson nodded in agreement. They ran to the bridge and to the main controls. Inside were the scattered remains of over a dozen battle droids. Tarson ran to the helm and locked in on the Venator's signal while Darrious sent the thrusters to full speed ahead. An alarm began to sound and on a large screen it showed twenty minutes to collision. The two friends left the bridge and ran down the corridor when every light in their section went out. There steps didn't even slow as they drew their blasters and kept running. Darrious flipped on night vision on his helmet just in time to see the ceiling drop and xenomorphs begin to drop not far ahead. They stopped at a cross section in the corridors and Darrious pulled a miniature fragmentation missile from his utility belt, loaded it on his gauntlet and fired as they ran. The blast sent them flying and killed many of them. More dropped to the floor. Tarson stopped and began to open fire but Darrious grabbed him and they jumped down another corridor, basting their way through the xenomorphs that dropped down their. They could hear the creatures pursuing them both in the corridor and in the vents. A room door appeared on the left and leapt in and slammed the door. The room was one of the many armories in the ship. They were sealed off from the rest in the case that the ship was taken. No vents led into the ships because they had their own vent systems and air scrubbers. The doors were also blaster resistant, heat resistant and acid resistant. Even so, they could hear the creatures slashing and pounding on the door. Darrious took the time to find more grenades and miniature missiles such as the super battle droids used and Tarson disappeared around a rack of blaster rifles, reappearing a moment later with a massive chain rotating blaster cannon and a large power pack on his back. Darrious smiled at his friend and picked up another large weapon. It was used by the trandotions as a heavy assault weapon and put out a fierce barrage of fire. After they had restocked, Darrious looked at Tarson and said, "I don't know how we are going to get out of here."

Tarson grinned and said, "I do. You see, I have here an emergency remote control of the ships systems. And I know that this weapons blister here can be jettisoned. I also know that I can control the tractor beam from here soo…"

Darrious laughed in his helmet and clapped his friend on the shoulder, saying, excellent. Suddenly, all the noise outside the room stopped. They looked at each other, shocked. Darrious said, "Better do it fast, Tars."

The xenomorphs ran as fast as they could to reach the hanger with a massive praetorian in the lead. Unlike its brethren, who all had black exoskeletons, this one was a strange dark blue. It had be birthed in the Chiss Marlo. It was also smarter and more calculating than it's brethren which is how it understood and remembered from Marlo's memories where the hanger was. Now they would be their waiting

The armory released and shot out from the ship and was immediately picked up by the tractor beam. The two men inside had strapped themselves to the bulkhead using gravity straps that were used for cargo pallets. They gritted their teeth as they felt the vertigo of being shot out into space and then swung around to the main hanger as if in an empty bottle that was being washed down a flooding stream. It seemed like forever though it was only a matter of minutes before they were dropped on the deck of the cruiser. Reaching over to the gravstrap's control switch, Tarson turned it off and the two suddenly fell flat on their faces. This made them both chuckle a bit the problem was that the door was now about fifteen feet above their heads. Tarson grabbed a pair of harpoon guns and fired them on either side of the door. The climbed up the lines and looked at each other, realizing the flaw in their plan. Darrious looked at Tarson and said, "Well?"

Tarson said, "What? Don't look at me. I can't open it, the room does not have it's own power source. And my lightfoil is not a lightsaber. It can't handle cutting through a door."

Darrious sighed in mock exasperation and engaged a cutting torch on his right gauntlet. It took less than a minute for him to cut through the bottom half of the door and kick it out. They crawled through and jumped down from the room. Suddenly a collision alarm sounded again and a robotic voice said, "Collision in ten minutes."

Looking around, Darrious saw his ship over a hundred meters away. The two began to run as fast as they could. Suddenly, a host of xenomorphs swarmed into the hanger. Both men opened fire and ran as fast as they could. They cut down the creatures as they approached with their heavy weapons, but the creatures continued to come, including some strange ones that seemed to have four legs as apposed to front arms to run on. Tarson cursed and Darrious said, "They got to your living zoo, I think."

They both ran out of ammo half way to the ship and dropped the weapons. Darrious pulled out his blaster rifle and opened fire while Tarson used two pistols, having picked up one from the armory. They were nearly caught when they ran up the ramp and shut it behind them. Tarson said, "I'll prep her for launch, you secure all cargo."

Darrious did so, using built in wall holsters. Suddenly, a great popped up behind him and he felt himself knocked to the floor. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a xenomorph pinning him down. It had strange horns on its head and two yellow eyes set just above its mouth. Darrious squirmed but the thing was strong. Thinking fast, he pulled out his combat knife and stabbed the things hand next to his head, causing it to rear back just enough for him to roll over and kick the thing off of him. Then he drew his energy beskar sword and attacked the creature. Though it seemed smaller, it was also faster than the other xenomorphs and also much more clever than them. It dodged and ducked under his blows while trying to use its tale to spear and slice him. His armor managed to withstand most of the blows though they drove him back against towards the loading ramp. Thinking fast, Darrious used his combat knife in his other hand to try and ward off the blows. Timing it carefully, he was able to parry a swing from the tail and then cut it off with the energy sword. The creature screamed and jumped back. No acid leaked from the cauterized wound. Rage was plain on its face and in its eyes as it leapt recklessly at him, only to be impaled on the long sword. With a hefty kick, Darrious got it off of his blade and was about to behead the squirming body when the ship lurched and took off. Darrious got up from where he had fallen in time to see the creature leap at him. Thinking fast, he rolled under it and spun, slashing at head height. The horned creature froze. Their was no outward sign that it had been struck. Then it's head toppled to the ground followed momentarily by its body. With a sigh of relief, Darrious climbed up to the cockpit and closed the door. He looked at Tarson in front of him. The man looked tired but alive. Suddenly, Darrious realized how tired he was too. Before he settled down, Darrious said, "Hey Tars, open the ramp below the cockpit and space that thing's carcass." and after a pause he said, "I think it was birthed in a zabrack though I don't know why it still had eyes."

Tarson shrugged. He didn't care anymore, he just knew it was over.


End file.
